acdii

At one time a mouse made a home in my planes. This wing was filled with dog food, my Something Extra fuse was filled with dog food, and one ate into the wing for the SE. There was also dog food in one of the T-Clips wings. Going to shove a sock full of mathballs in the wings to prevent the little f'rs from geting in them next storage season.

BigTeeEldorado

I'm guessing it would mess with the balance when the little critter runs from one wing tip to the other

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Add a spring loaded door in the bottom to allow him to drop out like a mouse bomb! IN COMING!

acdii

no, there is no mouse in that house, not anymore, hebedead. mouse bait works wonders, they like that stuff, ate up all the packs, then died.

BigTeeEldorado

OK, lets bring this back to topic

So I have reached a decision point and unclear as to which direction I should go. I decided to go ahead and torture myself with the checkerboard nose scheme. The instructions are not crystal clear on this so here is a question for the more experienced out there.

Should I cover the front with white monokote and apply the black squares using monokote over that. OR Should I paint a white base cote and apply black monokote squares over the painted white base. OR Should I paint a white base and try olympic class masking and paint the black squares.

Who has done this nose scheme and what were the challenges and successes?

hipik634

I would paint the whole nose to white, then go to ad-shop where they have a plotter and foils. let them cut the squares. then using transfer foil place them on the nose. then use exacto to get the squares out so you will have inverse pattern. then paint the black. after that strip the foil and you're done

BigTeeEldorado

Sounds good.....however.....here is my concern with any one piece overlay for masking. Compound curves. Even shrink film is difficult to work onto a compound curve and as a masking media I would be concerned about leakage on the edges. Even individual masking pieces have to be sealed with clear to keep them from leaking. On a nice flat surface or single curved surface I would not be as concerned.

I'm leaning towards covering with white monokote depending on how well I can get that down without wrinkles over the compound curve. The other concern for me is matching the white monokote with the white paint on the cowl.

I might be happier by just painting so i don't have to worry about keeping everything a consistent shade.

See....now I'm leaning towards painting....I want to get this project in the air before I die....someone please help me!!!

hipik634

just make it white now, to be able to get in the air, then try the first line with masking tape. it will either work or not. or try it on some scrap piece. anyway it has to look good in the air, doesnt matter if there are minor misperfections anyway on close look...

hipik634

here you go with the checkers. its from 1/48 size, but can be used on our size too. obviously you start on the top and go around. on some places it will be either shrunk or not cleanly next to other
http://www.geocities.jp/yoyuso/p51/p51e-2.html

BigTeeEldorado

WOW...nice site for detail information. A little too detail for this guy. My hands shake too much!!

I decided to put my head down and charge ahead....here is the end result.



I also did a little work on the cockpit inspired by the work asjwalsh did on his. I'm not near the detail guy he is, again my hands shake too much but I gave it a try.



Moving on to some hatches I need for access to the needle valves and where to put the fill lines and ignition LED. hoping I can get them all in one hatch.

hipik634

looks cool, i see you used masking tape and you are leaving it there or you will strip that? what way did you use?
about the dashboard did you just print it or ? can i have the image to print ?

i've been busy with glassing, making panel lines and finally painting


the yellow isnt covering very well so i had to use big spray gun instead of airbrush

BigTeeEldorado

What Masking tape? Actually what I think you see is pin striping. I hand cut the black squares as close as I could out of plastic film and ironed them on but didn't like the end effect. I added the pin striping to straighten out the lines a little and liked that a lot better.

The instrument panel comes as a decal with the kit, you probably didn't get that from the previous owner. It's all sealed up now with the canopy so the pictures you have are all I can provide.

I like the yellow!! I have to get to work on my panel lines now.

acdii

You need a white base for the yellow to cover well. I just went through this on a Cub. Yellow is darn near transparent and takes a lot to cover without a base.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I like a white primer under yellow paint, works great!

hipik634

well I unfortunately run out of primer while working on the wing, barely finished it. And with the color already mixed i didn't want to postpone it. Due to the kind of color i bet on its covering skills. We will see how it would look on the daylight. I can brush it away and repaint it as last resort, but we will see how it will work out

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Time will tell.

hipik634

as for the paint, it didn't go well with the yellow. on details, the paint went through the glass due to maybe oily surface or lack of filler, anyway, i used the tip with white primer, so i stripped all the yellow paint and used a white primer. now I have to sand it and spray again.

I also tried new tx hitec aurora and something went wrong in the air with my beta, so i will have to fix that. at least it still has the form of the plane, so it is fixable. I found a loose screw on the elevator, but it still doesnt explain the barrel roll it came into. So there has to be some explanation, i though of loosing signal, but i have checked the low power setting and even on 100 yards I was still in control, this was 200 yards away.

edit1: it's not tragic ...
meanwhile yellow is finally yellow:
and I am practicing:

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Don't think of it as a crash, think of it as an experiment in alternative landing techniques.

acdii

It's not a crash, its just being landed wrong.

BigTeeEldorado

Where I come from. an airborne radio failure does not leave any semblance of an airplane to work on. Count your blessings

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

That looks like one bonafide lawn dart you go there Tony! I have had a few of mine that matched it.

BigTeeEldorado

I left it as a marker after one of those "Radio Failures"

acdii

That looks like the Somethin Extra that planted itself at the Flyin last week. LOL

BigTeeEldorado

OK Guys, it's ready for an engine run. I won't be able to maiden it until the July 4th weekend, I have to go out of town this weekend. I probably need the time to squash the butterflies that are already emerging from their cocoons.

The panel lines turned out pretty good. Subtle effect that changes depending on the angle your looking from. Ended up using a paint pen with Silver paint in it.

G.F. Reid

My Feedback: (1)

Very nice. Good call on the silver panel lines.